A young family struggling to make ends meet came to Arizona to start over. Unfortunately, when they arrived all the family shelters were full, forcing them to sleep in their car.

Bethany Grieves remembers the night well.
“It was not that comfortable, you know, but you were happy to have a roof over your head,” she said.

Bethany, Phillip and their two sons, Daniel and David, never dreamed they would end up sleeping in their car.

“I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to do,” Bethany said. “It was a very hopeless feeling.”

Daniel remembers what it was like that July night, making the front seat his bed. “It was hot and musty.”

Being homeless was new for the Grieves family. Bethany had been a nurse, Phillip was a teacher, but when they both ended up unemployed, “We were just overconfident and we had not saved enough money,” Bethany explained.

The family drove from Missouri to Arizona hearing there was space at a family shelter, only to discover the last spot had been taken.
“I just started crying,” Bethany said. “I cried all the way through the soup line.”

Phillip couldn’t believe it.
“There was that moment of just really sadness,” he said.